The modification of the flattened configuration of the tubular fabric is particularly used for feeding tubular fabric cutting machines. In these machines the lateral edges of a fabric tube feeding out of a respective calender, in which the lateral edges of the flattened tube of fabric, which keep a respective permanent crease, must be placed in a suitable fabric cutting area, so as to form an item of clothing in which the permanent crease of the fabric is invisible in the finished item of clothing or garment.
In practice, these feeding means may be advantageously used in combination with a fabric cutting machine used to form respective portions of predefined fabric, to be subsequently assembled to form a finished garment.
Prior art turners designed to modify the flattened configuration of a tubular fabric are known which are provided in apparatuses for feeding a tubular fabric in a flattened state.
These prior art turners comprise a guide body, placed inside the tubular fabric, which have an upper, or upstream, part for stretching the tubular fabric according to a respective plane, and a lower, or downstream, part for stretching the tubular fabric according to a respective plane angularly spaced at 90° to the stretching plane defined by the upper, or upstream, part.
As is known, these upstream and downstream stretching parts have respective first and second coplanar elements for engaging the opposite sides of the tubular fabric and which are reciprocally tapered and convergent towards the downstream and upstream parts, respectively, with the first and second stretching elements of the downstream part angularly spaced at 90° to the first and second stretching elements of the upstream part.
A known problem with regard to these turners for modifying the flattened configuration of the tubular fabric is that, when it is necessary to feed a tubular fabric with a diameter different to that previously processed, it is necessary to modify the reciprocal width or distance between the first and second stretching elements of both the upper part and lower part of the guiding turner. These modifications to the width are currently carried out by the personnel by hand, with a significant waste of time. Indeed, in order to perform these size changeover operations, it is necessary to pull the tubular fabric off the turner, position a new turner with appropriate dimensions, that is, move apart or move together the stretching elements of both the upper and lower parts, and re-fit the tubular fabric over the guiding turner. These are laborious and time-consuming operations that are carried out entirely by hand by personnel.
Another problem found in the use of these turners for modifying the flattened configuration of a tubular fabric is that, in the passage area between a maximum stretching area according to a respective plane and a maximum stretching area of the tubular fabric according to a plane at right angles to the previous one, the fabric tends to form undulated areas in which the fabric is very slack, making it difficult to feed the fabric uniformly and with the risk of obtaining a defective end product.
In other prior art embodiments of these turners for modifying the flattened configuration of a tubular fabric, the fabric is pulled excessively, in the passage area between a maximum stretching area according to a respective plane and a maximum stretching area of the tubular fabric according to the plane at right angles to the previous one, with the risk of obtaining a defective tubular product.